ShorterShortcut (Video Version)

Let's animate Winston
using the shortcuts that you just learned.

So, here we've got Winston with his eyes

and we've got this eyeSize variable.

So if we wanted to make
Winston's eyes get bigger

we could just say "eyeSize += 1,"

adding one pixel to the size of the eyes

each time, and whoah!
Look at it, it's buggin' out!

Let's restart -- whoah! Bug out! Bug Out!

Now, that's pretty cool.

And, it turns out in programming

we actually add one to variables a lot.

Maybe while animating but also,

you'll see there's a lot of other reasons

why we add one to variables later.

Programmers got bored
of writing "+= 1" all the time

because programmers
get bored of silly things.

So they came up with
a shorter way of writing it.

So instead of "eyeSize += 1,"
we could just write "eyeSize++"

You see, it will do
exactly the same thing.

It's just a shorter way of doing it.

And not only do we use
this in programming,

Now most programmers
use it in everyday speech.

Because pretty much
we're all familiar with ++.

And it's an easy way of saying

that you're making
something a little bigger.

So if we went to Winston's birthday party,

we might say, "Oh, happy birthday
Winston, Winston++!"

Because Winston just got a year older.

Or if we just learned a new fact you might be like,

"Oh, go us, intelligence++!"

That's pretty fun.

So when should you use ++ versus +=?

Well, I think for animation
it's cool to use +=, because then

you can use the number scrubber
and you can be like,

"Whoah! Let's make it -- whoah whoah!
That was awesome!

Let's make it really crazy,
really different!

Oh! (laughter) See how fun that is?

But, you know, depending
on what you're doing

it might be convenient just to say "++."

And you'll see later
that there's lots of times

when you might want to add one

to variables, not just for animation,

where the ++ operator
could become even more useful.

So just keep that in mind
when you see that ++

and try using it in your everyday speech.